Wednesday, October 15, 2008

I love snide mockery

As a general rule, I think that displaying open contempt for idiotic yahoos who make a habit of embarrassing the entire nation with their verbal garbage is a laudable pursuit. Truly. And the people interviewed here are, without a doubt, idiotic yahoos. But I think maybe the New York Times is making it just a little too easy for the Palin-loving, anti-reading, New York-hating crowd.

I just love that all these people are identified first by their jobs and secondly by their physical point in space, which is almost invariably in the parking lot outside a Wal-Mart. I mean, c'mon. You couldn't find some racists, like, in an office building? "Flo Wynette, a waitress at the Slo-Poke Diner, was interviewed while leaning against a wall outside the Piggly-Wiggly, smoking a menthol. 'I just wish those coloreds would stick to basketball." "Billy-Ray Harper, who sometimes drives a truck for the lumber yards here north of Mobile, was found picking his nose in front of the Winn-Dixie. "Y'know all those half-breeds are gay, right?"

Fish in a barrel, NYT. And, frankly, not helping. You piss off the southerners with brains, of which there are many, you uphold Yankees' offensive stereotypes, and make racism seem simple - just a matter of rednecks, morons and Jesus freaks.

15 Comments:

Are you kidding me! If you covered up the top of the page, I would swear I was reading an article off "The Onion". I am distressed,amused and then distressed again, all at the same time! It is moments like this that I find it hard to say I am "Proud to be an American". This is the 21st Century people, wake up! On a personal note, my nephew is bi-racial. When he was an adorable toddler spending a day with me, we were in line at the grocery store and a women in line says to me, "He's so cute, what is he"? I will never forget that to this day!Thanks for pointing out the ariticle and letting me be the first to rant. rant on......

You're right -- I'm Southern, Not Racist, and Completely Offended. People have always criticized the Times for its elitism and liberal bias, and until this election cycle I always defended the Times, but they have seriously gone astray in the last few months.

I have a blog that I would love for you to give me your thoughts on. I'm a huge fan of your book and wondered if you'd tell me what you thought of the blog. It's about our recent international adoption. Our first child...10yrs old!I'd really appreciate and I promise I'm not crazy!Thanks...I hope :)

Amen. I lived in Austin forever, as you did. I came to NYC in 1986. Howard Beach happened a bit later, and my coworkers said "What is this? How could this happen here? This isn't the Deep South!!" I felt very lonely telling these people that I had met more racists in the VERY segregated nabes of NYC and New Jersey than I ever had in Texas. My husband and I had one codger tell us that he'd lived in Hoboken, our hometown, since "1979 B.C. -- before coloreds." Um, could anyone make this up?The TIMES gives us so much--Paul Krugman, Tom Friedman, Nic Kristof, m-m-m-m-m-Maureen! But the same sort of aspersions against the south one convinced my old friend Julia Reed (of Greenville, MS) to say "Goddammit. The New York TIMES. Where did their geniuses go this week?" Where indeed. mp

The biggest racist I ever encountered was on a bus going down Fifth Avenue, a middle-aged, middle-class, well-dressed, obviously educated white man with a Northeastern accent who openly made remarks about two young black men after they exited the bus with their boombox. I've lived in the South and Midwest for two decades and never met same open c***. The more we allow regional stereotypes (or class, racial, gender, and any other superficial "tags") to divide us, the more we play into the wrong hands. Boo, NYTimes!

Okay. so just read your book from cover to cover yesterday. and as a fellow foodie, loved it.

But as a non-liberal: merely "tolerated" your smattering of anti-Republican snipes throughout the book. So what? It's your book and your life, and since you were a government drone, it was understandable, the snipes.

But I logged onto your sight today to read some delicious food writing or something clever and witty and find...something about the NYT and anti-Palinism? Huh?

I absolutely DEPLORE racism. I lived in the south for 4 years and it was 4 years too many (oh and btw, the only part of Texas I loved was your hometown fo Austen!). But I remain unconvinced that, to quote Oprah, Obama is "the One" and I think not only his dubious associations are pertinent to his character but they're also indicators of his judgment. Does that make me a racist? On the flip side I may also wonder if John McCain is a bit long in the tooth. Does that make me an age-ist??? I think the candidates' backgrounds, their flip-flops on issues, their leadersip styles and their associations are pertinent. In my mind hat's called being informed and making a responsible voting decision.

Forgive me if I don't find the NYT to be at all neutral as a news source anymore. The thing is, after how Hillary was treated by the Times (and others) any of us do not find the paper a good source of news. There is a difference, I believe, between the op-ed section of a paper and the front page. So, to put it into Palin context: when the Times puts the RNC buying her and her $150,000worth of clothes and makeup on THE FRONT PAGE yet fail to make a deal at all of Obama's $5 million plus Invesco Field coronation event, any semblance of fair and balanced reporting goes out the door.

Wow, so much for finding a delightful food blog once I read the book. Tell me, what exactly is the difference between just outright calling southerners ignorant rednecks and pleading with your apparently culturally superior peers (no prejudice there -- cause you're naturally better, right?) to stop talking about those racist Southerners "we" all know are so thick on the ground that it's like "shooting fish in a barrel"?

Unexamined prejudice yourself, missy. Someday, when cooler heads prevail, the cohort that has spent the past six months compulsively accusing anyone who doesn't agree with their politics of racism will have to find a new sandbox. Meanwhile, spare us the posturing, and, no, it doesn't make you better than those people if your response is to whimper, "Ohhh, don't say it out loud, we all know they're there, but you don't want to antagonize them." Ugly, baldly prejudiced stuff, parading as enlightenment. Julia Childs would be neither this self-satisfied nor politically naive.

Tina's scathing misinterpretation of your post notwithstanding, I would like to thank you for pointing out the unfairness of the "racist redneck" stereotype. I am a proud Nashvillian, and I am here to tell you that the biggest redneck I know (and I know plenty) would give you the shirt off his back, his last cigarette, and change your tire without any regard for your skin color or nationality. You may call hard-working people who kick back by drinking beer and listening to bluegrass rednecks; I call them salt of the earth.